Problem: Wifi works ONLY in room where routers are. We have 2 in the house.

Just got macbook back from repair store. I needed some work done. I got new 160gb hard drive, new airport card and 2gig RAM upgrade and Lion installed.

Wifi works excellently in the room where the routers are. The minute I step outside, it drops. Weird thing is it used to work. I'm at such a loss at this stage why this is given all the upgrades on my macbook. Anyone?

A neighbor could have installed WiFi on the same channel or your could have new electronics running on a similar channel causing interference.
Use istumbler to check and see what channels show up and change your network to a different one, either 1, 6 or 11 and see if that works.

downloaded istumbler, showed both connections are around 35% (even though my macbook says full bars!) and around 10% noise. I don't know exactly how to use the application, not familiar with it. how do I change my channels?

The routers at home are weak. One is a Cisco. I've concluded that the issue lies within my macbook as the problem persists at college. Wifi works fine near the big routers but crappy a few more meters away. Everyone else seems to be picking up full signal fine.

Anyone any idea what may be causing this? I've replaced everything except for the boards, which I don't think it is!

Regarding the OS issue.. A brand new hard drive was put in and Lion installed. Now it is better, but only close to the router. It is 100% a 'distance from the router' issue, which as mentioned should be antenna-related.

The tech guy said that the antenna is just 2 soldered pieces of wire and it looked fine. Anyone ever replaced an antenna?

The tech guy said that the antenna is just 2 soldered pieces of wire and it looked fine. Anyone ever replaced an antenna?

Click to expand...

I don't know what your tech guy thinks he knows. The antennae (there's two, one on either side of the screen) are pieces of wire with connections that clip onto the Airport card. Maybe he means they're soldered to those connections, but it sounds like he thinks they're soldered to the board, which they are not. He should disconnect and then reconnect them to be sure, as well as reseating the card while he's at it. If that doesn't fix the issue, then either you have a problem with the antennae themselves or a bad card.

If you had any work done on the screen (IE removal of the antennas, or screen assembly), then the antenna wire could have been broken. Unlikely, but still a possibility.

Have him try reseating the antennas, then a new card, and if that doesnt work, have him try it with new antennae. Maybe you just got a bad card, although it does sound like it has more to do with a bad antenna connection.

If you had any work done on the screen (IE removal of the antennas, or screen assembly), then the antenna wire could have been broken. Unlikely, but still a possibility.

Click to expand...

The tech guy did seem to know what he was talking about, I just must have picked it up wrong.

You could be spot on. I had work done on the screen by a family friend who offered and I hesitantly accepted. As a result, he broke one of the magnet clips, which caused an automatic sleeping issue when macbook was closed and also broke the bezel. The wifi issue got bad around then. It HAS to be the antenna.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.